Nokia N8 Smartphone, with Symbian 3, Targets iPhone

by Michelle Maisto

Nokia's newest flagship phone is the N8a bar-raising, iPhone-sized device the truly exceeds any of the handset maker's previous offerings. For one, the N8 is the first Nokia phone to run the Symbian 3 platform, which brings with it gesture support for things like multitouch, flick scrolling and pinch zooming. Second, there's also a 12-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, as well as the ability to capture and editon devicehigh-definition video footage. Thirdly, Ovi Maps, for free walking and driving navigation, is included, and (benefit No. 4) so are the types of social networking perks that top the feature lists of most phones. Along with the N8, Nokia has introduced a new software environment called Qtwhich, in beta form, is now available to developers.

Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.